Interview “I Fell Into My Career by Accident”: Amrita Jhaveri on Building a Life in Art
Jhaveri went on to work independently with private and corporate collections, artist projects and large-scale commissions, before establishing Jhaveri Contemporary in Mumbai with her sister Priya in 2010. The gallery has since become an important international platform for artists connected to South Asia, bringing emerging voices into conversation with overlooked figures from its modern art histories. This curiosity has carried beyond the gallery walls too: Jhaveri co-curated ‘Thinking Tantra’ at Drawing Room in London and ‘South Asian Modernists 1953–63’ at the Whitworth in Manchester and is a trustee of the Kochi Biennale Foundation. Her 2005 book, ‘A Guide to 101 Modern and Contemporary Indian Artists’, written with Priya as her editor, captured an art scene on the cusp of monumental change.
This September, Jhaveri Contemporary brings this conversation to London with two concurrent presentations at Frieze’s No.9 Cork Street. Fiza Khatri’s ‘The Great Rebuild!’ and Kirtika Kain’s ‘Chronicles / Mimetics’ bring together artists of the same generation whose works emerge from very different communities and visual languages. Ahead of the exhibitions, The Wick caught up with Jhaveri to trace the accidental beginnings of a life in art, hear her take on what is still misunderstood about Indian art today and discover why Amrita Sher-Gil – after whom she was named – remains her ultimate Monday Muse.
THE WICK: What does a typical Monday morning look like for you?
Amrita Jhaveri: 6.00am alarm, a strong coffee, 7.30am to the gym, breakfast at home before I get to work by 10.00am. As I work with India, which is 5 hours ahead, my inbox is already full!
TW: What first drew you to a career in the arts? Was there a particular artist, exhibition or experience that sparked your interest?
AJ: I fell into my career by accident, inspired by a professor at university where I was studying comparative literature.
TW: Before founding Jhaveri Contemporary, you helped establish Christie’s presence in India in the mid-1990s. What did that experience teach you about the Indian art market and what ultimately made you want to open a gallery of your own?
AJ:
My career at Christie’s was brief but intense. I had to teach myself everything as I was thrown in the deep end.
My time there taught me to be entrepreneurial, which was helpful when setting up a gallery. I had never worked at a gallery previously.
“My career at Christie’s was intense. I had to teach myself everything as I was thrown in the deep end. [But] my time there taught me to be entrepreneurial…”
Amrita Jhaveri
TW: You published A Guide to 101 Modern and Contemporary Indian Artists. What inspired you to write the book and what was the most surprising thing you found in writing it?
AJ: I was approached to write a book when I decided to leave Christie’s and was setting up to be an advisor. The most surprising thing was working alongside my sister Priya, who was my editor. She was terrific. We continue to work together.
